FY 18 Announcement of Availability of Funds for a Clinical Training and Technical Assistance Project to Support the Title X Family Planning Program

Description

The Office of Population Affairs (OPA) provides funding for grants and contracts to support training for personnel working in Title X-funded services projects pursuant to section 1003 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 a-1). The purpose of OPA-funded family planning training is to ensure that personnel working in Title X Family Planning Services projects have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to effectively manage and deliver high quality family planning services and programs within a holistic optimal-health framework. Optimal health refers to the best possible outcomes for an individual™s physical, emotional, and social health.OPA expects that the National Clinical Training Center for Family Planning (NCTCFP) funded under this announcement will work to fulfill that purpose by delivering training and technical assistance grounded in evidence-based principles and culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies. The successful applicant will develop and implement a process by which the NCTCFP will review, assess, and revise their clinical training and technical assistance plan, training design, and materials on an ongoing basis (e.g., annually) to ensure guidance and supporting materials are holistically focused on an optimal-health framework, up-to-date and align with culturally competent and linguistically appropriate standards, as well as with Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations and other nationally recognized standards of care. From the early 1970s until the year 2000, OPA funded certificate family planning/women™s health nurse practitioner training programs to ensure the availability of health care practitioners with expertise in family planning to work in Title X-funded clinics. In 2000, OPA began funding œclinical specialty™ training programs, as a means to ensure health care practitioners had the hands-on knowledge and skills to provide effective, high quality family planning services in Title X-funded service projects. Beginning in 2006, the Family Planning Clinical Training cooperative agreement was funded to provide preceptor training and a biennial clinical reproductive health conference. In 2015, OPA awarded a cooperative agreement to fund a new clinical training program which built upon all of the previous efforts and served Title X-funded service providers throughout the country. This notice announces the availability of funds to further develop and operate a clinical training program to support clinical knowledge and skills-building for Title X family planning services providers.OPA seeks applications from public and private nonprofit entities to establish and operate a Title X family planning clinical training center, which will provide training, instruction, and technical assistance to health care practitioners and other staff who deliver care, counseling, and services in Title X-funded service projects. The successful applicant will demonstrate evidence of familiarity with and understanding of the diverse needs of the existing Title X family planning service delivery network. While the training and technical assistance materials developed in this project are for the purpose of training Title X grantees and their networks, the materials also may be of use to reproductive health and family planning service providers who, though not funded to provide Title X services, aim to deliver high quality care and services in a manner which mirrors the goals and objectives of OPA funded projects. The successful applicant will incorporate applicable evidence-based recommendations, practices and protocols as documented in respected publications such as in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Office of Population Affairs (OPA) joint publication, œProviding Quality Family Planning Services (MMWR; 63 (No. 4)). In addition, the successful applicant will incorporate nationally recognized standards of care and applicable Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations into training design, curricula development, and material creation, as appropriate. OPA expects that the NCTCFP will use evidence-based information, and will incorporate best practices and/or evidence-informed practices into all aspects of training and technical assistance. In addition, the successful applicant will maintain knowledge of the most current research and standards of care in order to act as a resource on a broad range of clinical family planning, reproductive health, and other related health and preventive care issues for Title X grantees and their networks, and will contextualize clinical training activities within a holistic optimal-health framework. Approvable applications will demonstrate evidence that the applicant currently possesses accreditation to provide eligible training participants with continuing education credits, hours, units or their equivalent, which are accepted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. OPA expects the clinical training center funded under this announcement will carry out four major elements. The NCTCFP will execute each in accordance with Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations and nationally-recognized standards of care, and will demonstrate incorporation of culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies, approaches, and standards. 1) Clinical Skills Development The training center will ensure that Title X health care practitioners providing direct, hands-on clinical family planning services have the most current information, skills, and attitudes necessary for the effective delivery of high quality family planning services. OPA expects that the NCTCFP will develop and provide training, materials, and other assistance to improve the clinical skills of Title X family planning service providers. This includes, but is not limited to, increasing the capacity and improving the competency of clinicians who provide family planning and reproductive health services through 1) improving the knowledge base of clinicians regarding the delivery of clinical services, e.g., data updates, releases of new evidence and other advances in clinical service provision; and 2) ensuring that the NCTCFP delivers training and education to Title X clinical providers throughout the entire project period, using a variety of training methods and learning modalities, including webinars, e-learning modules, and other multimedia tools. OPA expects the successful applicant clinical training center will make resources produced during the project period readily accessible to users remotely via a website, web-based modality, or other method, throughout the entirety of the project period. Additionally, OPA expects the clinical training center will develop and make available clinical support tools, reflecting nationally recognized standards of care and Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations, for use in clinical settings. These tools should be in a format which is easy for family planning clinical practitioners to access, use, and reference, and should be available via internet. OPA expects the clinical training center funded through this announcement will develop and deliver clinical skills training, technical assistance, and tools using evidence-based practices and culturally competent and linguistically appropriate strategies, in order to address the diverse needs of Title X networks, providers, and clients. 2) Clinical Protocol Development OPA expects the successful applicant will provide Title X recipients, subrecipients, and Title X clinical service providers with training, materials, and other assistance in the development of clinical protocols for providing Title X family planning services in accordance with current Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations and nationally recognized standards of care. In addition, the NCTCFP will ensure that training and technical assistance is made available to Title X service providers to help modify and adapt their existing clinical protocols to reflect changes and updates made to Federal and professional medical associations™ published clinical recommendations and nationally recognized standards of care. The NCTCFP will develop and deliver training, technical assistance, and tools by using evidence-based practices, and will address the needs of Title X Family Planning Services providers to enhance the delivery of high-quality family planning services. 3) Clinical Skill Assessment OPA expects that the clinical training center funded under this announcement will develop and implement a strategy for continuously evaluating Title X family planning clinical providers™ level of clinical skills. The purpose of this assessment is to provide grant directors, program and site managers, and clinicians with methods and tools to measure the level of Title X clinical providers™ competency. The successful applicant will demonstrate their capacity to develop and implement cost-effective strategies and activities using evidence-based methodologies and innovative, state-of-the-art technology to facilitate and/or conduct clinical provider assessment and monitoring, with both in-person and remote functionality. The NCTCFP will evaluate the results of these assessments annually, and will use information gathered from the assessments and the subsequent evaluation to inform development of clinical training tools and materials, as well as to generate topics for additional training and possible collaboration with other entities and training centers, in order to improve the skills of Title X family planning service providers. 4) National Clinical Training MeetingThe recipient will conduct an in-person clinical training meeting in 2020 to provide those in attendance with current, evidence-

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